Doomwyte
Doomwyte is the 20th novel in the Redwall series; the book was not published in the UK and as such, artist David Wyatt was not commissioned for a UK cover. The Redwall Wiki's advance review of Doomwyte is available here. It is the only book of the Redwall series to not feature any badger characters. The title is based on the myth of "doom whites," a type of foxfire. According to this particular legend, people would follow the lights into the forest, and never be seen again. According to villain Korvus Skurr, the events of Doomwyte take place "thousands of seasons" after the time of Gonff the Mousethief. Book Divisions (English) *'Book 1:' The Raven *'Book 2:' A Prince's Descendants *'Book 3:' Baliss Summary Griv, a magpie, was caught in a storm trying to seek shelter. She found Redwall Abbey and perched on a dormitory sill where she overheard Bisky telling the story of how Gonff the Mousethief stole four jewels from the Great Doomwyte Idol to Dibbuns. The story ends in a pillowfight between Bisky and a squirrel named Dwink, who thought the story was a bunch of fibs. Brother Torilis, the Abbey herbalist and infirmary keeper wakes up and catches the young ones in their fight. A stern squirrel elder, he promptly ends the quarrel and punishes the instigators, Dwink and Bisky, putting them on Abbot's Report. Griv, having left at the end of the story, flies off her perch to seek out Korvus Skurr, leader of the Doomwytes, to tell him about the jewels. The following day, as Abbot Glisam is dealing with Bisky and Dwink, they tell him about the story that Bisky told. Samolus Fixa, who is also Bisky's relative, interrupts saying that there is truth in Bisky's story. As they dig into the Abbey records they come upon the journals of Young Dinny, Lady Columbine, and Gonff. All three relate to Gonff's adventure when he stole the idol's jewels. Columbine refused to accept the jewels as a gift because they had seen so much evil. Gonff hid them and composed anagram riddles that reveal their locations. Meanwhile, after Korvus Skurr and his smoothsnake adviser Sicariss hear Griv's story, Korvus believes the residents of Redwall Abbey have the jewels, so he sends carrion crows to kidnap a Redwaller to find out if the story Griv heard was true; however during the attempt one of the crows is shot down by a passing highlands hare named Laird Bosie McScutta of Bowlaynee, causing the other crows to retreat. Afterwards, Bosie is offered position of Abbey Warrior, which he accepts. Korvus tries again to invade Redwall and capture a Redwaller by sending his greatest warriors, the Ravenwytes. The Ravenwytes attempt to capture a Dibbun squirrel named Furff, but the raven carrying the squirrel is killed by Bosie, and the other ravens retreat. The snakes that also were there were killed by Skipper Rorgus. However one Ravenwyte stays hidden in the Bell Tower, vowing not to return back to Korvus Skurr until his task is complete. In order to make the Redwallers fear him, Korvus Skurr makes a pact with the adder Baliss. Korvus Skurr promises him all of the reptiles in his domain (for Baliss to eat), in return for his services to which Baliss agrees, resulting in the distrust of Korvus's adviser Sicariss. The search leads to the cellars where the party (consisting of Bisky, Dwink, Samolus Fixa, Rorgus, Bosie, Skipper Rorgus, Foremole Gullub Gurrpaw and Umfry Spikkle) finds a door that leads to tunnels. Because the tunnels split, Bisky, Rorgus, and Umfry go down a tunnel which, oblivious to them, leads to the lair of Painted Ones. Samolus, Bosie and Dwink take the other path, and Foremole stays behind to guard the packs of rations. At the Abbey, two Dibbuns sneak into the Bell tower to ring the bell. Just as Tarul is about to attempt to capture one of them Sister Violet comes in and helps the young ones ring the bell; this results with the death of the raven. Meanwhile, as Bisky's group is caught in battle with the Painted Ones, the second group run into an owl, Aluco, who lives in the tunnels, perpetually hiding from the Painted Ones. He has one of the green Doomwyte emeralds and uses it to scare away the tree rats, for the rats believe the light the jewel makes is Baliss, an adder. Together they elude the Painted Ones and re-enter Redwall. Bisky gets captured and irritated in captivity by a tree rat named Jeg. Soon after, a Guosim shrew named Dubble joins him; he was captured after escaping his bully father, Log-a-Log Tugga Bruster. They escape after a short while and sleep in a hollow log. As they sleep, they got bonked over the head by a sandbag and are dragged off. As Cellarhog Corksnout Spikkle is disposing of Tarul's body, Baliss arrives at the Abbey. Confusing the scents of the two creatures, Baliss tries to eat the raven but hits his snout into Corksnout, filling his face with hedgehog spikes. Baliss slithers away, unable to remove the spikes. The wounds become infected and the agony brings insanity upon the adder. As it was Korvus who assigned him to attack Redwall, Baliss blames him for his injuries and wants revenge. Bisky and Dubble awaken in a large cave filled with bickering mice, and they are confronted by the chief of the tribe, known as Gonfelins, descendants of Gonff the Mousethief. Bisky tells Pikehead Nokko, the chief, what they've been through. Later that night Nokko shows Bisky the Gonfelins greatest treasure and one of the Doomwyte jewels, a red ruby. Nokko also introduces Bisky to his daughter, Spingo, who quickly becomes a friend of Bisky. After a quick feast, several of the Redwallers, including the Guosim with their Log-a-Log Tugga Bruster, set off to save Bisky in the hope that the Log-a-Log's son might be with him. On the way they see the adder Baliss thrashing around in madness from the pain from some of Corksnout Spikkle's spikes. They continue and the Painted Ones ambush them in a clearing and a battle begins with Dwink slinking off into the trees to capture one of the Painted Ones. Bisky and Dubble convince the Gonfelins to help them save the Redwallers and together they attack and outnumber the Painted Ones. Tugga Bruster then kills Chigid, the chieftain of the Painted Ones. The battle soon ends in a Redwall victory. Meanwhile, Dwink is tricked by Jeg, who captures him and ties him upside-down on the five-topped oak, the Painted Ones' home. Jeg prepares a fire beneath him that he intends to have Dwink fall into. Unconscious, Dwink has a vision of Martin the Warrior who tells him to hang on and that Jeg will experience a death much worse than any he could imagine. Jeg was poisoned and killed by Baliss. When the Redwallers and the Guosim prevail in the fight against the Painted Ones, they remove their paints from their faces and send them out on to the Western Plains. During this process, Tala, wife of Chigid, who was slain by Tugga Bruster, swears revenge. After trying to steal one of the Doomwyte emeralds and attempting to frame Nokko, he runs away from his failed attempt and is banished from the Guosim; Tala gets her chance and stabs a sharpened wooden branch through Tugga Bruster's chest. After Jeg was killed, Dubble soon begins to realize his surroundings and finds the forest he is in is filled with birds. His first impulse is to run to a nearby river and the crows fly towards him. A dark female otter named Zaran the Black drives them away with her double-bladed sword, and she lets Dubble rest in her home, having experienced the loss of her mate and young one. She reveals to Dubble that she is secretly digging above the Doomwytes lair to eventually make it collapse for revenge against Korvus Skurr for the death of her family. Meanwhile Baliss arrives at the lair of Korvus Skurr, but he only blocks the single entrance into the underground cavern. Bisky and Spingo borrow a Guosim logboat to search for Dubble. They eventually find him and help Zaran with her tunneling operation. Unfortunately, while digging Spingo gets buried alive. Zaran manages to make holes in the dirt for Spingo to breathe, but the large rock that Spingo was digging under will eventually crush her. Bisky and Dubble take the boat to go back to Redwall and recruit the moles to dig the young Gonfelin out of the ground. At the Abbey, the remaining searchers scour the Kitchen. The clue says "Friar's Grace" which they discover is an infirmary tray made by Goody Stickle in bygone seasons. They smash the tray (much to Brother Torilis's disappointment) and find one of the jewels, as well as another clue. In the Doomwyte lair, Baliss' agony worsens causing him to search for cold water to soothe his pain. He finds the icy cold lake in Korvus Skurr's private sanctum. As he lowers his head in, the giant catfish living in the lake, Welzz, attacks the adder. However Baliss manages to kill him in defense. Meanwhile at the Abbey, the next clue is revealed to mean that the jewel is at the "wild sweet gatherers' home" in the east. Rorgus, Perrit, Dwink, and Foremole leave the Abbey to find this location. Bisky and Dubble arrive almost as soon as the four companions leave. They tell the Redwallers of Spingo's predicament, and Friar Skurpul leads the moles as Deputy Foremole. Taking the Guosim logboats, the woodlanders sail to Spingo and Zaran. On the voyage Dubble is given the hereditary title of Log-a-Log due to his father's death, however he refuses and gives the position to Garul, an older shrew. In Mossflower Woods, the four questors traveling east are attacked by a strange hedgehog, Blodd Apis, queen of the Wild Sweet Gatherers, which are revealed to be bees. They are able to subdue her and force her to lead them to bees. There, she offers them a very sweet and tasty drink. As they drink they all fall into a drunken slumber, except Foremole. Blodd Apis reveals that she lives off the drink (mead), so she is unaffected. She tells him that she will kill them by pouring upon them the juice of wood ants, which will make the bees sting the one covered in the juice, and shows him the Doomwyte jewel. The fact that his own and also his friend's lives are in danger manages to sober Foremole. He manages to smash the deadly liquid upon the hedgehog causing her own bees to sting her to death. Foremole wakes his companions by splashing streamwater on them. They search Blodd Apis' body and find the Doomwyte jewel. Afterwards, they return to Redwall Abbey. The Gonfelins, Redwallers, Guosim, and moles arrive to the hilltop. To get Spingo out, two groups of moles tie a rope to a tree on each side of where Spingo was buried to themselves. They make a tunnel from each side; the moles managed to free Spingo however Friar Skurpul was buried alive as the tunnel collapsed. The woodlanders entered the cavern to finish off Korvus Skurr and his minions. Although outnumbered, they put up a good fight. Meanwhile, Bisky, Dubble, and Nokko saw that some of the moles from the tunnel collapse were now hanging from the ceiling with their ropes. Friar Skurpul and two other moles were unable to hang on and fell to their deaths. However, three other moles and an unconscious Spingo on a separate rope were still hanging. The three woodlanders pile soft soil under the moles to jump down on, they all manage to get down with no injuries. With Bosie's help, they manage to get Spingo and the moles out of the underground cavern. Korvus Skurr then tries to escape through a small recess in the wall. The Gonfelins, Redwallers, and Guosim fight valiantly against the birds and reptiles of Korvus Skurr, but are still outnumbered. After Bosie receives a terrible wound, it causes him to suffer the Bloodwrath, and his charge inspires the woodlanders and causes the Doomwytes to retreat. Now that the woodlanders were scattered, Korvus stopped trying to escape and attempts to fly out of the entrance tunnel. He flew right into Zaran and was stabbed; they then fell into the stream where Korvus and Zaran fought until Korvus Skurr drowned. Baliss, meanwhile, was now loose in the cavern and began eating anything he could find. The woodlanders managed to escape while the blind adder was distracted, but soon Baliss tried heading out of the tunnel. With the adder quickly coming out of the cavern, Gobbo of the Gonfelins blocked the entrance with fire. Using nearby twigs, deadwood, and moss the woodlanders ignited the entrance with a light from their campfire. Knowing that the fire would not last, Zaran, Bosie,Spingo and Frubb found a way to collapse the remainder of the underground lair of the Doomwytes. After finding a large sycamore tree, and careful estimation from the mole, Zaran and Bosie tied two ropes around the sycamore to two trees beside it. After cutting a certain spot on the tree until only the ropes were supporting it, the two woodlanders climbed into the two trees the sycamore was tied to, then cut the rope causing the cavern below to collapse kill Baliss and the remaining Doomwytes. Upon returning to Redwall, there was a great feast (made possible by Dubble's work in The Kitchen) to celebrate the victory and mourn the loss of the moles Rooter, Grabul, Ruttur, and Friar Skurpul. Abbot Glisam then brought out the Doomwyte jewels, concerned that the last jewel was never found. Nokko handed over the final jewel that belonged to the Gonfelins, and declared that the Gonfelins would renounce thievery and would stay at Redwall. Realizing that the jewels had seen too much evil, Abbot Glisam had the jewels buried in honor of their fallen comrades on the hilltop above the former lair of Korvus Skurr. Seasons later, Perrit and Dwink had a daughter, Rorgus and Zaran had a son, Bisky and Spingo had a daughter, and Dubble had become head Friar of the Kitchen. Abbot Glisam retired from his position as Abbot of Redwall and passed it on to Perrit while he chose to become Abbey Teacher, making it his goal to teach the illiterate Umfry Spikkle how to read and write. [[:Category:Doomwyte Characters|Characters in Doomwyte]] Release Details *2008, US, Philomel Books, ISBN 0399245448, Pub. Date: October 2008, Hardcover *2008, UK, Philomel Books, ISBN 9780141384375, Pub. Date: October 2008, Hardcover *2009, UK, Puffin Books, ISBN 9780141323985, Pub. Date: July 2009, Paperback *2010, US, Ace, ISBN 0441017789, Pub. Date: January 2010, Paperback *2011, US, Firebird, ISBN 9780142418536, Pub. Date: January 2011, Paperback Category:Books Category:Redwall Books